"I have been waiting for you for a long time, Dawn Knight!"
Zhou Yi tilted his head, genuinely curious. "You seem to have expected this, but I'm intrigued—how did you know I would intercept you?"
"You severely underestimate us Vampires," Giant replied, his expression unnervingly calm, as if the opponent before him wasn't an unstoppable force. "We have lived in this country for centuries. Our influence is far-reaching, and our allies are more numerous than you can imagine."
"Traitors among humans," Zhou Yi muttered, a look of profound disgust crossing his face. There were always highly placed individuals in this world willing to trade their humanity for profit, regardless of who their partners were.
Giant bared his fangs in a sneer. "Isn't that the nature of you humans? Filthy and contemptible. Let a little grease flow through your fingers, and you flock to it like dogs wagging their tails."
"I have no interest in discussing the inherent flaws of humans with you. As a mere minion of Makinos, you are hardly qualified to judge." Zhou Yi raised his hand, pointing it directly at Giant. "Tell me, where did Makinos instruct you to place the weapon? Tell me honestly, and I can guarantee you a relatively comfortable death."
Giant's fangs sharpened further. "Dawn Knight, do you think I am a coward afraid of death? I swear on my eternal soul, you will not leave this plane before sunrise."
"Then go to hell. Blame your existence on being a Vampire."
Zhou Yi had quickly scanned the entire plane and was certain the deadly substance was either a microscopic component of Giant himself, or he was the mechanism. Incinerating him and sifting through the remains would solve the mystery. Impatient, Zhou Yi unleashed a dazzling beam of light from his palm.
Sunlight, fatal to all Vampires, had been proven countless times to reduce them to ash. But an anomaly appeared.
The light struck Giant, and instead of combustion, an unforeseen transformation began. Like a flower unfurling only in the light, his body began to swell and distort. Skin and muscle burned away, but beneath them, a tide of organic tissue grew and spread with terrifying speed. Giant was undergoing a colossal, visible mutation.
He grew rapidly, tearing through his clothes as new muscles erupted. These weren't standard muscles, but bloated, lumpy, wildly growing organic tissues that ignored human anatomical structure, filling every available space.
In moments, Giant was no longer a man, but a horrific, three-meter-tall behemoth. His skin was shattered, revealing crimson tendons, barely holding a humanoid shape. The creature, mutated by the stimulus of simulated sunlight, was a terrifying spectacle.
The tendons covering his body were not for show; they contained astonishing power. A casual sweep of his arm crushed and deformed the metal seats like brittle crackers. When he moved his foot, the cabin floor groaned, threatening collapse.
A monster of this size on a passenger plane was a nightmare for everyone. The moment Giant transformed, screams erupted from the crowd that had been watching the confrontation, and several passengers fainted in shock.
"There it is, Dawn Knight! You didn't expect this, did you? I am the danger!" Ignoring the terrified humans, Giant roared at Zhou Yi. His voice was muffled and guttural, a mix of gasps and roars, yet his message was clear: "Master's experiment succeeded. The Sun can no longer harm us; it will only become our strength. Vampires will finally become the absolute rulers of humankind!"
"You're indulging in a fever dream that will end by dawn," Zhou Yi declared, taking a ready stance. "I will personally exterminate you."
"Come and try!" Giant laughed maniacally. "We are forty thousand feet in the air! What happens when your proud supersonic attack hits in this confined space? Guess how many internal shockwaves this aircraft can withstand before it tears apart?"
Zhou Yi quickly glanced at the analysis data Medusa displayed. A supersonic attack, even directed at the target, would generate catastrophic turbulence, severely deforming the cabin walls. On a plane dependent on its structural integrity for stable flight, deformation meant disaster.
Giant seized on Zhou Yi's hesitation. "You're wavering? For these insignificant humans? I am not!"
He extended a pillar-like arm, clenching his thick palm until five foot-long, pale claws shot out from between his fingers. The claws were hooked and glazed, indicating extreme density.
Giant swung his arms wildly, tearing seats like paper and launching the heavy debris toward Zhou Yi. He didn't care if he hit the hero or not. Even if the Dawn Knight dodged, the lethal projectiles would either hit the passengers behind him or breach the cabin walls, instantly dooming the flight.
Zhou Yi couldn't allow harm to the passengers or the aircraft structure. Facing the hail of heavy objects, he held out his palm, unleashing his Mental Energy.
Mental Energy, the kinetic manifestation of powerful spiritual force, is an unquantifiable power limited only by the user's mind. Zhou Yi was not a grand philosopher, but his mental power was exceptionally potent, far beyond Giant's imagination.
Before him, the projectiles seemed to enter slow motion. They decelerated, struggling through an invisible resistance, until they stopped completely just a meter from Zhou Yi.
The magical scene prompted several tourists to frantically grab their phones to record. Giant, however, charged forward, roaring.
He gambled that Zhou Yi would not have the necessary concentration to defend against his physical attack while simultaneously managing the suspended objects.
The massive creature charged with the ferocious momentum of a tank, his thundering footsteps shattering large sections of the plane's interior. Debris scattered everywhere.
Facing the charging behemoth, Zhou Yi concentrated his Mental Energy again, holding all the flying debris stationary. Then, he violently swung his arms, snapping them together at the center.
The physical gesture dictated the action of the Mental Energy. All the static objects were manipulated by unseen forces, gathering into a massive, cohesive Giant Hand that slammed toward the charging monster.
Giant roared, flailing his huge arms, smashing against the composite hand. The already shattered debris broke into finer fragments under his assault, but they did not fly away. Instead, they continued to push inward, driven by the irresistible psychic force.
Giant could defend against the large objects, but not the torrent of fragments. Countless pieces pierced his body like miniature bullets. The incessant, agonizing needle-pricks caused the colossal monster to scream.
His shouts elicited no sympathy, and the power he unleashed in pain was useless against the Mental Energy. Soon, the massive pieces of debris joined the smaller fragments, squeezing him relentlessly.
The monster was trapped. His surroundings were enveloped by the continuously contracting mass of debris. He pushed, kicked, and slammed, but all was futile. The space around him shrunk rapidly.
Despite his tissue density, which might rival steel, it buckled under the psychic compression. Objects were forcibly mashed into his flesh. To the distant passengers, it looked as if the giant had been hit by tons of overhead cargo, a vision of absolute destruction.
Wailing sounds emanated continuously from the pile. Zhou Yi didn't know if this could kill the creature, but he maintained the pressure. He kept one hand in a clenched fist gesture, directing the relentless psychic force.
The pile of twisted remnants completely buried Giant. Compressed and warped by the Mental Energy, the debris formed a dense, semi-spherical orb. Inside lay the Vampire Giant, twisted beyond recognition.
Humans couldn't see the interior, but Zhou Yi could. Giant's body was grotesquely contorted. Bones and muscles were pulverized, mashed into a strange paste. His head was destroyed; a hard metal object had crushed his skull, grinding into his brain cavity.
Yet, even in this horrific state, he wasn't dead. His mutated organic tissues were furiously operating, expanding and contracting with his breathing. A cellular substance continuously repaired and reorganized his remains. The repairs were erroneous and monstrous, but they were undeniably happening.
Zhou Yi's brow furrowed deeply. Giant was the successful realization of Makinos's most terrifying experiment, a monster inheriting the terrifying regeneration of creatures like Chadnomah, but stripped of the Vampire's most obvious weakness. The Sun, in fact, was now a stimulant.
The difficulty of defeating such a monster had far exceeded his initial estimations.